This invention relates to a hand-cart with parts which may be placed in use position or in stored position.
Conventional hand-carts (also sack barrows and similar carts) which can be partially folded together or collapsed, have the considerable disadvantage that their large and small wheels project in such a way that the storage or transporting of them, for example, in the trunk of an automobile, on a train or in an airplane, always presents significant problems. The reason is that in the transport mode with its obstructing, usually far-projecting wheels, it not only requires a relatively large amount of space but often also causes damage to other adjacent goods because the projecting wheels may penetrate into them. It is true that carts or other carriers with very small wheels can reduce the mentioned disadvantages, but small wheels do not represent a satisfactory solution because they cannot overcome without additional problems many obstacles, such as gutter, edges of carpets, mats, sidewalk edges, rocky ground, thresholds, soft soil, etc. Also, folding wheels, wherein the wheel-suspension element or wheel-carrying element which has hinges which makes possible a folding of the wheels through 90.degree., have, especially in the case of heavy loads, proven to be either unsuitable or technically and economically too costly. The reason is that, first, the natural bearing clearance in the hinges of the folding mechanism results in a "wobbling" of the wheels because these wheels have no lateral stability, and secondly, the often highly stressed wheels after their erection can be blocked in a satisfactory manner only by special, completely play-free and wear-free and therefore relatively expensive fixing or locking mechanisms. The folding mechanism as such is also technically costly and in addition requires a certain space for its housing.
A toy hand-cart is known from U.S. Pat. No. 1,244,506. In the case of this known hand-cart, the drawbar and the wheels can be removed and placed in the box-shaped transport body. Because of the depth of the box-shaped transport body and the drawbar parts and axle parts that remain attached to it, there is a considerable space requirement for the cart in its storage condition. In addition, the assembly of the different parts is difficult. During carrying of the hand-cart, the transport body must be carried with its opening upward, because otherwise the parts would fall out.
German Pat. No. 433 912 shows a hand-cart that is held together by push-in connections and which can be disassembled into its individual parts. However, in the disassembled form, it consists of a plurality of unconnected individual parts that cannot be attached to one another in a space-saving way, are relatively space-consuming and are hard to transport.
U. S. Pat. No. 4,087,102 provides a luggage cart with handles which can be pushed into a suitcase bearing frame; a mechanism is connected with the handles for swivelling the wheels into the bearing frame simultaneously with the pushing-in of the handles. The swivelling mechanism is relatively complicated, susceptible to wear and very space-consuming. In addition, the cart according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,087,102 does not permit the transport of goods that must remain horizontal.